Snack manufacturer picks solution to help meet increased demand

CDC Software, a wholly owned subsidiary of CDC Corporation and a provider of industry-specific enterprise software applications and business services, announced that Intersnack, a leading global snack manufacturer, is expected to implement CDC Factory, a manufacturing operations management and enterprise manufacturing intelligence solution, at its two plants in the Netherlands to help increase capacity, improve efficiency, reduce costs and further strengthen the company’s lean manufacturing initiatives.

Recognized as one of the top 50 global food producers, Intersnack Group is the result of a combination of Intersnack Knabber-Gebäck GmbH & Co. KG and The Nut Company. This new formed pan-European group manufactures snacks in the following product categories: nuts, potato crisps, prefabricated chips, sheeted snacks, extruded and pellet products, as well as crackers and pretzels. The highest level of quality based on know-how and modern technology is important for all manufacturing processes. Consumer-orientated innovations, top quality, a wide range of shapes and flavors are also the mainstays of Intersnack’s success for further international growth.

With the global recession continuing, Intersnack is finding consumers increasing their in-home snack consumption. As a result, Intersnack expects that CDC Factory will help them take advantage of this increased demand without making costly additional capital expenditures.

Intersnack is expected to implement CDC Factory at its Doetinchem and Hardinxveld plants in the Netherlands. The food manufacturer also plans to use CDC Factory as a platform to standardize its daily work control practices, as well as its successful lean manufacturing practices already in place, which is expected to further improve employee productivity with its hourly workforce. As part of the CDC Factory Profit Audit, a CDC Software service that identifies specific financial opportunities and improvement targets for a plant before implementation begins, it was estimated that Intersnack could potentially improve overall plant efficiency by approximately 10 percent annually after completion of its implementation of CDC Factory.

Arjan Lammers, managing director of operations of Intersnack NL, stated, “Our immediate challenge is to meet the rising consumer demand for our in-home products while offsetting price pressure. As a pre-packaged solution, CDC Factory comes with real-time intelligence and built-in action and review cycles. That means our workforce is expected to be able to drive significant improvements immediately. The Factory Profit Audit undertaken by the CDC Software team established a very specific performance target for each site and set a clear implementation road map that should enable us to begin delivering financial benefits within about 12 weeks from project commencement. I fully expect to realize substantial efficiency savings within months of starting the project.”

CDC Factory is the first software solution to combine the power of manufacturing operations management and enterprise manufacturing intelligence into a packaged solution designed to cut production costs. It makes action unavoidable for a manufacturer’s plant workforce, as well as the executive management.

Utilizing real-time plant metrics such as overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and cost per unit, CDC Factory provides a real-time framework that unites scheduling, operations, quality and maintenance and delivers substantial performance improvements. For more information, visit www.cdcfactory.com.